Jack turned in a slow circle and scanned the field again, as if Eli might have become visible through sheer force of refusal. He wasn’t there. “Did he say where he was going?” Blank looks. A shrug. Danny was already looking away. Jack felt his pulse jump hard enough to make his fingers feel strange. “Think,” he said, sharper than he intended. “Did anyone see him leave?”
Nothing. No answer. No useful detail. Just boys at the exact age where attention came and went in unreliable bursts and everybody assumed everyone else was keeping track. Jack turned away before the panic on his face could become anyone else’s problem. He crossed the grass. Checked the benches. The climbing frame. The toilets block.